Vice President Kamala Harris spoke Tuesday night at a packed rally that her presidential campaign said topped 10,000 attendees in a showing of swing-state enthusiasm rivaling former President Donald Trump’s trademark rallies.
“Georgia, it is so good to be back, and I’m very clear: the path to the White House runs right through this state,” Harris, 59, said after walking on stage in a powder blue suit at the Georgia State Convocation Center to Beyonce’s “Freedom” — her new campaign anthem.
Coming on after a performance by supporter Megan Thee Stallion, Harris opened with her crowd-pleasing attack on Trump, 78 — casting herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor going up against a “predator.”
“As many of you know, before I was elected vice president, and before I was elected a United States senator, I was an elected attorney general and an elected district attorney, and before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. So in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who broke the rules for their own game,” Harris said.
“So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” she added to raucous applause.
It was her second campaign rally as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — after she spoke to 3,000 people last week in Milwaukee.
The large crowd blew away the generally small audiences of President Biden, who ended his campaign July 21 and endorsed Harris as his successor.
Harris tried to address head-on one of her biggest liabilities — her performance on securing the border as Biden’s point person on reducing illegal immigration.
“In this campaign, I will proudly put my record against his any day, any day of the week — including, for example, on the issue of immigration,” Harris said.
Four Biden proposals to remake the Supreme Court and backed by Harris:
- The Supreme Court justices would be limited to 18 years on the bench.
- Presidents could only nominate one justice every two years.
- A new ethics code would require justices to disclose gifts, not engage in political activities and avoid conflicts of interest involving themselves or their spouses.
- A constitutional amendment would reverse the court’s ruling that presidents have immunity for their actions in office.
“I was the attorney general of the border state. In that job, I walked underground tunnels between the United States and Mexico on that border with law enforcement officers. I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers that came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” she said.
“Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk. Or as my friend, Quavo would say, ‘He does not walk it like he talks it.”
She claimed “Donald Trump does not care about border security. He only cares about himself. And when I am president, I will work to actually solve the problem.”
Harris made the assertion despite Republicans regularly slamming her actions as the Biden administration’s so-called “border czar” — as she presided over sequential record-breaking annual illegal crossings — with polls showing that immigration is a leading liability for Democrats alongside economic concerns.
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Harris also addressed economic concerns, but largely kept to Biden’s well-worn focus on what she called “price gouging” and “hidden fees” while vowing to double down on plans to cap some rent increases and drug prices.
Trump has proposed his own economic plans including more tax cuts, eliminating taxes on tips and pushing for more domestic fossil fuel production and pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
Harris, who would be America’s first female president, said she would ensure “the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.”
“We love our country. And I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” she said.
“And so, we who believe in the sacred freedom to vote will finally pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Harris went on — referring to the locally significant issue of recent legislation regulating election policy.
“We are the underdogs in this race,” Harris told the crowd — less than 100 days before the Nov. 5 election, as swing-state and national polls show her gaining ground on Trump.
“The momentum in this race is shifting, and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it,” she said.
“Tou may have seen he pulled out of the debate in September he had previously agreed to,” Harris went on.
“Here’s the funny thing about that: So he won’t debate, but he and his running mate sure seemed to have a lot to say about me. And by the way, don’t you find some of their stuff to be just plain weird.”
In one of her best-received lines of the 20-minute speech, she added: “I do hope you’ll reconsider and meet me on the debate stage, because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!”
Harris is expected to announce her running mate in the coming days — so Democratic delegates can nominate the pair in a virtual roll call ahead of an Aug. 7 Ohio ballot-access deadline.
Harris’ energetic rally and large crowd contrasted markedly with Biden’s prior events, including a joint campaign rally featuring both Biden and Harris in Philadelphia on May 29 that filled less than half of a school gym.